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A Michigan man is being held in Kentucky, on charges that he helped steal eight 2025 Chevrolet Corvettes from the Bowling Green plant where they were built. The eight performance cars were apparently stolen from a parking lot at the plant, last weekend, after thieves cut through a fence. According to police, the 8 new Corvettes are valued at $1.2 million. Luckily, a concerned resident of an apartment complex notified the sheriff’s department after she saw a man stash one of the vehicles covered with plastic wrap and stickers at her complex and simply walk away.
Bowling Green Assembly Famous for Building Corvettes
The GM Bowling Green Assembly facility is known worldwide for building the American sports cars. The grounds also has a Corvette Museum and Corvette buyers in the past have been allowed to tour the plant and watch their vehicles being built.
According to the Louisville Courier Journal, police arrested 21- year-old Deantae Walker of Westland, Michigan. He is charged with the theft of at least three of the Corvettes. According to the police report, Walker said while being booked into jail that if he “would have made it back to Michigan, I would have been paid big.” Walker is facing several charges including receiving stolen property of $10,000 or more, criminal mischief, evading police and resisting arrest. Walker is also apparently being charged with engaging in organized crime because all eight vehicles, valued at $1.2 million, left the plant at the same time.
Timeline of the 2025 Chevrolet Corvette Thefts
According to the Associated Press, the first car was located Saturday when a woman at an apartment complex in Bowling Green called police to say she saw a man park a new Corvette with stickers on it at the complex and then walk away.
Police contacted the manager of the assembly plant, who checked the inventory and reported that eight Corvettes were missing. Police later located four more Corvettes at different locations, within two miles of the assembly plant.
According to the Louisville Courier Journal, the last three muscle cars were found “after officers received a call from a transporter driver who said he was asked to come to a location to pick up an older model Corvette to transport to Michigan. When the driver arrived, he saw three new 2025 Corvettes and told police the two men trying to move them were in a hurry. He also noticed damage on the bottom of the cars and called the transaction “weird,” according to the citation.”
When police arrived, they caught Walker after a chase and charged him with receiving stolen property, fleeing arrest and engaging with organized crime. Another man reportedly escaped in a Jeep with Ohio tags. Walker is due in court Friday morning.
2025 Chevrolet Corvette ZR1s Were Spared
A GM spokeperson told another reporter that the thefts did not involve any of the all-new 2025 Chevrolet Corvette ZR1 supercars. Still, I’m sure the Bowling Green facility is tightening its security as it starts to produce such high demand vehicles.
Collectors have been waiting years to get their hands on the ZR1. Chevrolet’s new halo car has 1,064 horsepower and recently reached a top speed of 233 miles per hour during testing in Europe. Chevrolet confirms that the 2025 Corvette ZR1 equipped with the ZTK Performance Package can do the quarter mile in 9.6 seconds. The ZR1 does 0-60 in 2.3 seconds. The ZR1 will start at $174,995 and go up from there.
Chevrolet Photo
Mary Conway is a professional automotive journalist and has decades of experience specializing in automotive news analysis. She covered the Detroit Three for more than twenty years for the ABC affiliate, in Detroit. Her affection for the Motor City comes naturally. Her father ran a gas station while Mary was growing up, in Wisconsin.
Follow Mary Conway at @MaryConwayMedia and send her car news tips for future stories
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